Takashi, the Japanese-Korean grill-it-yourself spot in the West Village, is a place where organ-meat lovers gather. "Yakitori-horumon" (basically, grilled guts) is a restaurant style invented by Korean immigrants shortly after World War II in the Kansai region of Japan, and though Takashi also offers juicy short rib and shoulder, variety meats are their specialty.

You can slurp raw liver or chew on strips of Achilles tendon. But just about everyone loves tongue -- the ultra-beefy muscle tastes like particularly flavorful pot roast. So perhaps Takashi's most crowd-pleasing dish is the "tongue experience," which sounds like it could mean several different things. Actually, it's three parts of a cow's tongue -- tender tip, tougher sinew, and good old regular tongue. Marinated in sesame oil and garlic, and sizzled on your table grill, it's a bovine, textural delight, and also the best approximation of making out with a cow.